Realistically we need laws changing to catch up. Nobody, not even good old uncle Gabe, are going to give us the same rights we had with physical games.
You own them the same way you own Steam Games without DRM. If you keep a backup of them you’ll always have them but if the store goes away or terminates the files you won’t be able to re-download it from them.
So the same as physical games then, if you lose your copy its gone. But its much easier to backup and have multiple.
You really aren’t selling physical media with DRM to me, and they always seem to have DRM. I could make 20 copies on bluray if I wanted to with my games, much harder with your physical ones.
Steam is still driving a lot of support for Proton and other open-source development for gaming on Linux, which is why they’re still worth supporting. And if (maybe when) they enshittify, then it is far easier to sail the high seas on any Linux gaming rig than it is on any console.
True, but I do anyway because they consistently create the nicest gaming experience and have a plethora of nice features like their super user-friendly controller customization system.
You don’t own your games on Steam either.
Realistically we need laws changing to catch up. Nobody, not even good old uncle Gabe, are going to give us the same rights we had with physical games.
Support for Linux isn’t support for Steam.
Most games on steam arent DRM, so nothing stops you from backing up all your games.
Also for ones that use Steam DRM it can be simulated. It’s a stretch to call it hard DRM and I wish more people would mention this aspect.
Not having tens of thousands to spend on storage is a bit of a blocker in my case.
Just get a used LTO6 tape drive. You can get 6TB (compressed) cartridges for like $15 each on ebay.
I will look into this, thank you!
I own my GOG games though. Factorio, which I got straight from WUBE, I also own.
You own them the same way you own Steam Games without DRM. If you keep a backup of them you’ll always have them but if the store goes away or terminates the files you won’t be able to re-download it from them.
So the same as physical games then, if you lose your copy its gone. But its much easier to backup and have multiple.
You really aren’t selling physical media with DRM to me, and they always seem to have DRM. I could make 20 copies on bluray if I wanted to with my games, much harder with your physical ones.
You don’t own games on gog, you just have a offline DRM free installer
If you want to go down the technicality of owning that much the same applies to physical media for games.
I could copy my installer to a DVD and at that point it doesn’t really make a difference, oh look its physical now.
I understand there are different levels to the word “own”.
Own them as in “I can play them even if that store is unavailable in the future” is one level.
Own them as in “I can trade/give them to others when I don’t want them any more” is another.
One is not better than the other, and they’re not mutually exclusive. But physical gives you both of them. Digital doesn’t. Or not yet at least.
Digital is better then surely? I can give it to you and still have my original.
Ah, the good old days.
Steam is still driving a lot of support for Proton and other open-source development for gaming on Linux, which is why they’re still worth supporting. And if (maybe when) they enshittify, then it is far easier to sail the high seas on any Linux gaming rig than it is on any console.
You also don’t need to buy a game on Steam to benefit from Steam’s Proton.
True, but I do anyway because they consistently create the nicest gaming experience and have a plethora of nice features like their super user-friendly controller customization system.